This is the 8th and last post of Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) series.The earlier posts in this series were-Organic Search engine optimization (SEO)- Part1 , Part-2 , Part-3 , Part-4 , Part-5 , Part-6 and Part-7. Please go through these posts first before heading to this one.
In this post I am going to tell you about the anchor text and how it should be used to harvest maximum from your link building campaign.
What is anchor text?
Anchor text are the texts or words you use to link your blog pages. For example, I have used words 'part 1' , 'part 2' etc. to link to to my earlier posts of organic search engine optimization series.(look at the first paragraph of this post)
For long, webmasters were accustomed to use words like 'click here' or 'here' as anchor text.But that was the time when search engines were not programmed to consider anchor text to rank websites.But now things have changed.
Search engines algorithm has changed and now spiders consider anchor text as one of the player to rank websites.That is why, anchor text is so important.
Besides benefits from search engines point of view there is one more benefit of using anchor texts.By using anchor text , visitors get an idea about the link and the blog/site they are heading even before clicking.But for this a proper anchor text has to be used.
Now the big question comes here-
How anchor texts should be used in order to get maximum benefits?
I am listing several points you should consider to choose your anchor text. Apply all these points and I am sure your blog will get some benefits .
- Never use words like 'click here' and 'here'.
This will not help your cause.The biggest disadvantage of using these words as anchor text is , they don't tell your visitors and search engines anything about your blog/site.
Your anchor text should tell the theme of your blog.Let us suppose, you own a blog on 'beauty tips'.Then your anchor text should be "beauty tips " or "Beauty tips and Grooming" or "beauty and make-up tips".These anchor text tell the visitors and search engines what your blog is about.
- The anchor text should contain your keywords.
Search engines take a look at the anchor text you use to link to your blog and if you are incorporating your keywords in your anchor text then their is all liklihood that your blog will rank better for those keywords if you have done all other things right.
Lets take the example of "beauty tips" here.The probable anchor texts could be-
"Beauty tips to look better" and "tips to look good".
Note here,both the anchor texts are telling the theme of the site/blog but in the first case the keyword has been incorporated while in later it is not.For organic search engine optimization ,the former anchor text is clearly better than the later.
- Never use same anchor text for all your links.
Most of the SEO experts will tell you to do this.The reason is, search engines ,particlarly, google will sandbox all your links or just devalue them once you use same anchor text for all your links. So, better use different anchor text for your links.
It will be a nice idea to make three anchor texts containing your primary keywords and two other secondary keywords ,then use them in a ratio of 60% , 30% and 10% with anchor text containing primary keyword with 60% of share.Most SEO experts will tell you to do so.
This way you can harvest maximum from your organic search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.
This ends my post on anchor text and also the organic search engine optimization (SEO) series.
Happy optimization !!!!
